BENGALURU: Stating that a weak attempt had been made by the Lokayukta police to justify a corruption case when there was no complaint, the High Court on Tuesday quashed the corruption case registered by the anti-corruption body against Prof S N Hegde, former vice-chancellor of the University of Mysore.
Allowing a petition filed by Prof Hegde, Justice Anand Byrareddy quashed the FIR registered on August 6, 2005, and chargesheet filed on August 30, 2005, by the Lokayukta police in Mysuru against him. Prof Hegde, who was V-C of the university for two terms between 1997 and 2003, was accused of accepting $7,000 from K L Ramdas, to favour TTL College of Business Management. Ramdas was the chairman of the college.
Justice Byrareddy said an inspector of police had conducted the probe under the Prevention of Corruption Act, as against an officer of DySP rank. The investigating authorities also did not obtain sanction from competent authority to prosecute Hegde, the judge noted.
Consider Plea on Water, Govt Told
The High Court directed the state government to consider the representation seeking 50 tmcft of water to Kolar and Chikballapur districts of the 173 tmcft additional water allocated to the state by the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal. A division bench directed the authorities to consider the representation within three months. The direction was issued while disposing a PIL filed by Dr Anil Kumar and C Gopinath, residents of Bagepalli and Chintamanti.
The petitioners said the tribunal had awarded 734 tmcft to the state in its first award and an additional 173 tmcft in the second award of December 30, 2010. There is no mention on the use of additional water and it cannot be used for the districts already benefited, they said.
On Behalf of a Dead Person
In his petition, Prof Hegde has denied the charges against him. One K Mahadev filed a complaint on November 12, 2002, on behalf of Ramdas. But Ramdas died in the US on November 4, 2002. One more complaint was sent from the e-mail ID of one V M Kumaraswamy on behalf of Ramdas in September 2002.